ICANN has just launched a trial for integrating IDNs into the root. The ICANN blog has an interesting post by Kim Davis, giving nice examples on why viewing IDNs around the world can sometimes be problematic for some and not for others and why these current tests are so important for software developers.

“Internet2 announced the completion of its new nationwide network infrastructure. With an initial capacity of 100 Gigabits per second (Gbps) nationwide and revolutionary bandwidth-on-demand capabilities, the new Internet2 infrastructure provides researchers and educators the potential to transform disciplines across the board from science, to telemedicine, to network research, to the performing arts.”

The Afilias press release also included a note about NewYork.info being the largest .info sale at the time $46,000. NewYork.info was subsequently resold again in July for $70,000 but is no longer the highest .info sale, travel.info is now the most expensive publically recorded sale selling for $117,000

will be added to the Internet’s central directories as early as next week, paving the way for Web surfers around the world to get online without knowing any English.

At this point, the 11 domain names are meant primarily for software developers and Web site designers to test the new system, but they are the first such names entered in the 13 key domain name directories (root servers).